HELENA — A Montana lawmakers' panel advanced proposed legislation to try to make counties more accountable for filing accurate financial reports by deadlines. But testimony last week from the one county likely be impacted by the law was "intense," as one legislator described it.

Nearly $400,000 in entitlement and oil and gas tax payments are withheld from Glacier County because the county has not submitted tax collection reports, Steve Austin, an administrator with the Montana Department of Revenue, told the Local Government Interim Committee. Glacier County is the only county in the state delinquent enough to have money withheld from the state.

Two Glacier County commissioners who are Native American placed some of their county's financial struggles on a lingering resentment in the Cut Bank community against Indians, coupled with trouble in finding qualified county treasurers.

Glacier County has a long-running dispute between some of its residents and the county commissioners.

The vast majority of the county is located on the Blackfeet Reservation, with the county seat of Cut Bank located just east of the reservation boundary.

Items in the bill include calls for the Montana Attorney General to do investigations and brings actions against government entities under certain conditions. It requires financial review for local governments at regular intervals, special audits and notifying a county or city attorney if a shortage is found by an independent audit.

It also gives taxpayers a remedy in court to get laws enforced.

Three years ago Cut Bank resident Elaine Mitchell encouraged residents to pay property taxes under protest until county and state officials cleaned up the financial record keeping for the Glacier County government. She sued the county, citing irregular accounting practices that produced concrete injury to taxpayers. Her case eventually went to the Montana Supreme Court which ruled in October that she lacked standing to sue the county or the state.

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Elaine Mitchell of Cut Bank.(Photo: Tribune photo/Phil Drake)

The suit was sparked by a 2015 audit by the accounting firm of Denning, Downey and Associates for 2013 and 2014, which found Glacier County did not have adequate funds to meet its current liabilities, did not follow government accounting practices and violated state and federal budgeting requirements, according to court documents.

An August 2017 story in the Tribune noted Glacier County's finances had been awry for so long and payments to the school system so infrequent, that the Cut Bank School District pulled out financially from the county to handle its finances at a bank in town.

Following Mitchell's the loss in the Montana Supreme Court, Jim Nelson, a former supreme court justice and former county attorney for Glacier County, said he felt there were flaws in the law that would not let a resident sue and spoke to the Local Government Committee in March.

“When I read the decision I thought it was not right,” Nelson said adding taxpayers should not be denied from going to court. “It’s just plain wrong.”

Jim Nelson(Photo: Courtesy Photo)

Nelson then worked with staff on a proposed bill, which will be presented as amended to the 2019 Legislature. Nelson said they went through existing laws and made mandates mandatory instead of discretionary.

Legislative committee member Sen. Roger Webb, R-Billings, called for action Thursday on the proposed legislation known as the “Single Audit Act.”

“There is an issue here. I think we have gross neglect if we don’t try to do something,” he said. “It’s affecting all the other entities within the county.”

“This issue is not being fixed,” Webb said. “To me it looks like it is not being addressed. These folks are asking for help and I think we owe them the courtesy of at least trying to do something.”

He noted the Glacier County Commissioners act as that county’s chief executive officers.

“They run the ship, the buck stops there,” he said.

Rep. Mary Ann Dunwell, D-Helena, will carry the bill.

Glacier County Commissioner Michael DesRosier spoke to the legislative committee on the proposed bill and talked about the fiscal and social struggles in Glacier County. He told the panel there is some resistance to all three commissioners being Native American.

“I guess today I am playing the race card,” he said. “We feel a lot of problems up there are about our race.”

DesRosier said the local paper has been a “real watchdog up there,” and featured negative news articles weekly.

He said these articles have prevented business and economic development in the community.

DesRosier said another problem is that Glacier County has had six treasurers in office since 2004 and that has led to various accounting problems. He said the problems arose out of dysfunction in the treasurer’s office.

He said Mitchell and the other Cut Bank residents are using "former Justice Nelson’s" influence to bypass what the Montana Supreme Court has already decided on.

DesRosier said he knew there are similar issues with treasurer's offices going on in other counties.

“We feel we are being held back by the legislation and legislative changes proposed,” he said. “These things have no place in today’s government.”

LeAnne Kavanagh, publisher and owner of the Pioneer Press in Cut Bank, told the committee action is needed.

“The taxpayers of Glacier County need your help in passing legislation that sends a clear message to county leaders: following the existing laws is their duty.”

"Public records in my county are anything but public,” she said, adding she is not requesting information that is difficult to provide, such minutes of Glacier County Commission meetings.

"She represents investigative reporting and journalism the way it was and should be now," he said. "She is tough, gets aggressive, she gets into things and reports facts."

The proposed legislation at one time included smaller stakeholders, such as cemetery boards, and personal liability for government officers under certain circumstances.

Some who testified before the committee said the new rules would dissuade people from participating in government.

Eric Bryson, executive director of the Montana Association of Counties, said the audits could have a “chilling effect” on people wanting to run for office.

“This bill would be a bad thing,” he said, adding it could have impacts on county government.

He asked that training be included and noted that as of the primary, there would be 95 new county officials taking office.

Kelly Lynch, deputy director/general counsel with the Montana League of Cities and Towns, asked the committee to give House Bill 422, a state law passed in 2017, a chance.

That bill, sponsored by Rep. Rob Cook, R-Conrad, allows the attorney general review complaints of alleged misconduct by local government officials under certain circumstances.

The Montana Attorney General can tell county attorneys to prosecute county public officers, even though the attorney may work with those officials. Also, it allows the state to withhold payments if the county government has not filed proper audits or reports.

Nelson said the new proposed law was fair to all.

“No county official in Glacier County and the state is being held to any higher standard,” he said. “They are being held to the same standard as any other official in the state.”